Will Oli-Dahal meet resolve NCP intra-party feud today?

KATHMANDU: Prime Minister KP Oli and Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal are holding a one-on-one meeting to settle intra-party wrangling on Wednesday.

The meeting will begin at 11 am today, according to Surya Thapa, the Press Advisor to the Prime Minister.

The meeting between Prime Minister Oli and Dahal held at Baluwatar yesterday after a six-day-long hiatus ended inclusively.

Oli and Dahal are under pressure to narrow down the existing differences among NCP leaders before the Standing Committee (SC) meeting slated for Friday (July 17).

Today’s meeting is viewed significantly as Oli has stated that the intra-party feud has thawed and that all sorts of internal party disputes could be resolved through dialogues.

The SC meeting of the NCP has been postponed for time and again after the one-on-one meeting between Dahal and Oli ended inconclusively.

Earlier, two heavyweights had held one-on-one meetings for five times (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday a week ago and on July 14 after six days) but without success.

The SC meeting slated for July 10 has been postponed for July 17 stating that the whole party rank and file had to participate in rescue and relief operations for flood victims.

The two-hour-long meeting held at the Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar on July 8 could not make any headway as both the leaders stuck to their respective stance with no signs of budging.

The intra-party feud of the ruling NCP has deepened after most of the Standing Committee members demanded resignation of Prime Minister Oli from both of his posts.

Senior leader Nepal and his aides are disappointed as they have not been involved in the talks. It is learned that NCP Spokesperson Narayan Kaji Shrestha, too, is dissatisfied with the ‘one-on-one’ dialogue between the NCP top guns.

The party leadership is currently under pressure to keep the party intact since around 53 central committee members of the party has already initiated a signature campaign to convene the party’s central committee meeting.

They have argued that the meeting of the 441-member central committee will be more impactful than the 45-member Standing Committee.

According to the NCP statute, the leadership will have to call the meeting of the central committee if 25 percent, i.e., 110 members signed the document.